‘I presume you’re aware that Jack Merriweather works for the Holtzes?’
‘I’ve heard that, yeah.’
‘So it’s probably safe to assume that the Holtzes own Elite A and therefore almost certainly own Arcadia, isn’t it?’
‘Are you asking me or telling me?’ he said, using the same phrase Elaine Toms had used the previous day.
‘Don’t fuck us about, McBride,’ I told him coldly. ‘We’re only talking in your front room because at the moment we’re giving you the benefit of the doubt. However, so far you’ve told us absolutely nothing that we didn’t know already, so you’re still looking at a nice long spell in the nick. Now, answer my question unless you want to continue this interview down the station.’
‘All right, yeah, I suppose it’s safe to assume. I didn’t know for sure he owned the place … both places … but there were rumours. I don’t like to ask too many questions about that sort of thing. You know, I don’t want to get on the wrong side of Stefan Holtz.’
I changed tack. ‘How well did you know Shaun Matthews? Honestly.’
‘I got on all right with him. I knew him a bit, you know.’
‘Did you ever socialize with him outside work?’
McBride paused before answering, at the same time breaking eye contact with me. ‘A couple of times, yeah,’ he said eventually. ‘We was both ex-army so I think he thought we had something in common. Most of the other blokes didn’t really like him much.’
‘Why not?’ asked Berrin.
‘Well, like I said, he rated himself. Threw his weight about a bit, and he could get nasty if he thought anyone was holding back on money owed to the club.’
‘Did he ever upset one particular person more than any of the others? Enough to give them a motive for killing him?’
‘He had a run-in with one geezer, one of the permanent doormen, John Harris. John was getting a blowjob in the bogs from one of the punters when he should have been out on the floor. I don’t think it would have mattered — you know, that sort of thing goes on a lot. The birds are attracted to door-men, aren’t they?’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ I said, hoping my daughter would never flutter her eyelashes at a lowlife like McBride.
‘But the thing was, he did it quite a lot. He was always poking the punters, sometimes two at a time, and the thing was he had, you know, staying power, so he could be at it for fifteen, twenty minutes, sometimes even longer. Which I suppose is why they liked him. Anyway, Shaun had just had enough that night so he went charging into the Gents, kicked open the door, and dragged John out by his dick. John didn’t know what had hit him — you know, element of surprise and all that — and he got a fair old slap. Broken nose, couple of black eyes. Nothing serious, but I think it was the humiliation of it. Shaun marched him through the whole club with his trousers still half hanging down, and booted him out the door. Told him to come back when he’d got his sex drive under control.’
‘And did he come back?’
‘Not after that. Well, you wouldn’t, would you? Not after someone’s taken those sort of liberties with you.’
‘When did this incident take place?’ asked Berrin.
McBride shrugged noncommittally. ‘A couple of months back. Something like that.’
Berrin and I looked at each other. We hadn’t heard about this run-in with John Harris, but then no one at Arcadia was going out of their way to be of help. Berrin made a note in his notebook. We’d track down the sexually energetic Mr Harris later.
‘Did Shaun Matthews ever discuss with you any problems he had with anyone, problems that might have resulted in someone wanting to kill him?’
McBride shook his head. ‘I know he dealt a fair bit on the side, and I don’t think he had too much in the way of respect for the punters buying off him. He told me a couple of times that he used to mix his gear pretty heavily, but he never seemed to worry too much that anyone’d come back and give him any grief about it. He said he’d just tell them to fuck off if they did. That was the thing with Shaun: he wasn’t really scared of no one. He always thought he was hard enough to get himself out of any shit that came his way. You know what I mean?’
I knew exactly what he meant. Plenty of criminals are like that, too cocky to realize they’re walking on quicksand. Matthews was only the latest in a long line of those who found out too late, if they found out at all, that they weren’t as invincible as they’d thought. ‘We’re aware of one particular incident where he dangled a man by the ankles over the balcony of his flat. Do you know anything about that?’
McBride tried without success to stifle a laugh. ‘Yeah, I remember him saying something about that one. I think the geezer was a student or something. Shaun sold him some stuff that was meant to be skunk but he’d got it cheap off some Moroccan geezer because it was so shit. Apparently, all it did was give you a sore throat. The bloke tried to get his money back and Shaun demonstrated his refunds policy. I don’t think he came back again.’
‘Have you got a name for this student?’ asked Berrin.
He shook his head. ‘No. He just told me the story when we was out one night. I think he said the bloke might have gone to City and Islington, but I couldn’t say for sure.’
‘Did Matthews ever say anything to you about ripping off the Holtzes?’
McBride gave me a withering look. ‘Shaun might have been a bit of a headcase, and a bit of a wanker if you’re honest about it, but he wasn’t totally fucking stupid. He wouldn’t have ripped off people like the Holtzes, and if he had, he wouldn’t have said nothing about it. Not to no one.’
I sat forward in my seat and stared hard at him. I don’t like getting withering looks from small-time crooks who’ve got little but not-so-fresh air between their ears. ‘You’re still not helping us much, Craig. And you’re not giving us any reason to walk out of here and forget that you’re sitting on a pile of dope that most assuredly is not for personal consumption. Are you?’
‘Look, I don’t know who killed him. Honest. You know, what the fuck can I do about that? I can’t make it up, can I?’
‘Several witnesses reported seeing Matthews with a woman with short blonde hair on a number of occasions. We think they may have been romantically linked. She certainly used to visit him at his flat. We’ve now identified her as Jean Tanner. Here’s a photo of her. Not the most flattering one, but mugshots never are.’ I took it out of my pocket and handed it to him. He looked at it quickly, then handed it back, shaking his head. ‘I’d like to think, for your sake,’ I continued, ‘that you can tell me what her relationship was with Mr Matthews.’
McBride made a number of noises suggesting he was thinking hard but they weren’t particularly convincing. ‘He might have mentioned something once, about some girl he was seeing, but he didn’t really say anything about-’
‘Craig McBride, I’m arresting you on suspicion of possession of Class A-’
‘All right, all right, hold on. Don’t be hasty.’
‘What do you mean, don’t be hasty? I could grow a beard waiting for you to tell me anything.’
‘Look, I don’t want any of this getting back to me. Seriously.’
‘Any of what?’
McBride put his head in his hands, then removed them and exhaled loudly. ‘Any of what I’m going to tell you.’
I didn’t get too excited. ‘We’ll treat it as an anonymous source if it’s applicable,’ I said. ‘Now, I suggest you get on with it.’
‘Shaun had a girlfriend, a girl he’d been seeing for a few months, and her name was Jean, but I don’t know what her second name was. The thing was it was all really hush hush. I’m surprised anyone saw them together. He only told me about it one night after he’d had too much gear and drink. I think he wanted some advice.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, this girl, and I think it must be the same one, she was sort of already spoken for. She was seeing Shaun on the side.’
‘It happens,’ I said.
‘Not to Neil Vamen it doesn’t.’
Once again, Berrin and I looked at each other. This certainly put a new angle on the whole thing. The gentleman gangster. ‘You’re telling us she was Neil Vamen’s girlfriend?’